


Anime-Specific Duel Mechanics

by Supreme Zarc (tatersalad5001)



Series: Yu-Gi-Oh! Analyses [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: Archived From Tumblr, Archived From datanamines Blog, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Duelling, Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-06 21:47:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16841056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatersalad5001/pseuds/Supreme%20Zarc
Summary: Comparing and contrasting different duel mechanics from GX, 5DS, and Arc V. Archiving from Tumblr





	Anime-Specific Duel Mechanics

**Author's Note:**

> so apparently i can cross-post these things here and save them here. not that i think my stuff on tumblr's gonna be taken down anytime soon but it feels nicer to collect them all in one place. you can find me on tumblr as datanamines
> 
> this one was from while i was watching 5ds, looks into contact fusion, action duels, turbo duels, dark synchro summoning, and accel synchro summoning. and what i like about some of these and what i don't like about some of these. this is probably not easy on the eyes and i apologize.

Dueling itself has evolved quite a lot over these three series. Yugioh GX didn’t really bring much new to the table in terms of evolution, but it certainly expanded upon what Duel Monsters already established. There’s a lot of Fusion summons (the main character’s main strategy), there’s a lot of Ritual summons (the main strategy of another major character), we see a lot of long chains, different ways to defeat your opponent, and tons of new cards. Yugioh 5D’s brought the addition of Synchro monsters, which were very difficult to take down at the time unless you had them yourself (or at least, I know I had a lot of trouble). Yugioh Arc V took all of this, including the XYZ summons from Zexal, and added Pendulum summons and monsters, which really turned the tides. We all know all this. We’re all very well aware of these different summons and monsters. I am, I’m sure you are, this is all nothing new. But this isn’t all these series do. There are some aspects of the card games that are anime exclusive, and that’s what I _really_ want to get into. 

See, something about 5D’s has been bothering me, since way back when I started watching season 2. And I couldn’t quite place it since what seemed to be bugging me had really similar elements in GX and Arc V, and I had no problems there. So what was with this double standard? But first, let’s step back a bit.

The anime exclusive part of dueling in Yugioh GX is nothing new, because we see it in Duel Monsters as well: the heart of the cards. The heart of the cards isn’t bullshit, and it’s not luck, not in the anime; every card contains a duel spirit, and the cards will respond to their duelist’s wishes and feelings. You’re backed into a corner, about to lose, and you have one last draw and one last turn and you’re desperate for something to turn the tides in your favor, and your cards respond and you draw exactly what you need. Duel Links implements this somewhat with certain skills characters can unlock.   
But it’s far more than just drawing the card you need at the right time. Cards themselves can even change their name and appearance, add themselves to your deck at will, remove themselves if need be. We see this in GX, 5D’s, and Arc V. Jaden’s deck changes to include Dark Fusion and Evil Heroes when he’s possessed by the Supreme King. (Although, personally I would’ve liked the name Elemental Villains over Evil Heroes, but I digress. The point is, there’s no card shop selling Elemental Hero cards conveniently hanging out in Hell) When Jesse Anderson is possessed by Yubel, the names of his Crystal Beast cards change to reflect that. In 5D’s, the Crimson Dragon responds when a Signer is in danger, and adds a tuner dragon to the top of their deck to let them Synchro summon an even stronger dragon than before. In Arc V, the best example of this is towards the end, when Yuto takes over his shared existence with Yuya when he’s about to duel Ruri, and Yuya’s deck changes to become Yuto’s deck. Later on, when Zarc is revived, the names of his dragons change to reflect this, though they are otherwise unchanged. This…does not happen when you’re physically holding the cards and playing the game, trust me. If it did, I’d definitely not have so many loses and so few wins. Other than that, we see some of the dimensions duel monster spirits live in, and we get to see duel spirits in our own through our protagonist. Heart of the Cards is the only real major anime-only dueling mechanic here, at least from what I remember. 

In Yugioh Arc V, what we’re given is a lot more obvious; Real Solid Vision gives cards real mass, so monsters can really be touched and card effects can really be felt. In addition, we’re given Action Cards. These function differently in the anime and manga, but the basics of it is: action cards can be found on the field during an action duel. These include Action Magic cards and Action Traps. Action Magic cards are added to the hand, can be used in either player’s turn, usually provide a benefit to their user, but only one can be held at a time. Action Traps are more rare but activate as soon as their picked up and usually cause damager to their user. Combining these aspects we get Action Duels which are a lot more…active. Instead of watching two losers stand around and play a card game, we see duelists ride their duel monsters around, use their field to their advantage, and it’s really entertaining, leading to the rise of Entertainment Duelists.

Now, a lot of this is weird bullshit, but it doesn’t really bug me at all. I actually like all of this and like that it’s all in the shows. The heart of the cards itself kind of eliminates bullshit, in a way. Yeah, it usually serves to help our protagonist, and yeah, it’s not fun seeing the protagonist win all the time, and yeah, the heart of the cards leads to more wins than loses for the protagonist. But more than anything, it serves the plot really well. It leads to a majority of duelists respecting their monsters and cards, rather than seeing them as a tool of some kind. It allows for the symbolism of a duelist becoming evil and their cards reflecting that. And for a game that can really be luck-based at times, it makes apocalyptic situations seem less, oh the hero got lucky, and more oh, the duelist believed in themself and their cards which lead to their win. 

Action Duels themselves really serve the viewer more than the plot or the characters. Sure, the show bases itself around that idea, but for the most part it could probably stand without Action Cards and Real Solid Vision with some tweaks. Yuya doesn’t need Action Cards to have struggle in his duels; at first, his win-lose record is a solid 50-50. He only really improves after the introduction of Pendulum Summons, and if we didn’t have Action Cards, he has plenty of monster effects and spells and traps that would negate attacks instead. Honestly, not a lot would have to change. But really, they only make things better. Someone explained really well once why Action Cards help the show more than harm it, so we’ll ignore that. But Action Duels themselves? Fun as hell to watch, man. We get to see people riding their monsters, hiding behind traps, runinng around the field, and just moving everywhere, and it’s all part of their strategies. Watching Action Duels and then going back and watching duels where people just stand around is rough. Even the part of Arc V where we switched to Riding Duels for awhile was a lot more boring than the rest of the series (we couldn’t leave that part of the show soon enough). Action Duels are really fun, and suddenly you don’t really mind when duels run really long.

This anime-only shit in Arc V and GX really serves to help the show in all these cases. This is not the only thing GX and Arc V have in common, so this really comes as no surprise to me. But in multiple ways, 5D’s has aspects that are the complete opposite of these shows, and this is one of them. 5D’s anime-only shit kind of….harms it a bit, and breaks immersion for me a bit while I’m sitting there wondering what the fuck they just did.

First off, Turbo Duels. I like Turbo Duels. I like card games on motorcycles. It’s a little ridiculous, sure, and probably not the best thing since it’s definitely not safe (look at how many crashes there are in the series), but it’s a step in the right direction. People are riding motorcycles, and it’s more fun to watch than a regular duel. High speed duel chases by Sector Security are thrilling. I’m a Sonic fan too - I have a need for speed, so I just really like the motorcycles in this show. But Turbo Duels can be a bit much. Speed Counters and Speed Spells are largely unnecessary, honestly. Speed Spells, like Action Cards, could easily be replaced by regular spells and traps, but the difference between Speed Spells and Action Cards are that Action Cards are more thrilling and fun for the audience, while Speed Spells are just a huge inconvenience for everyone. Speed Spells are explained poorly, for starters, and it took me at least one season to figure them out. And there’s not nearly as much tension with them as Action Cards, because either you don’t have enough Speed Counters to use them, which is rare tbh, or you just slap them on the field and it’s literally no different from regular Spell Cards. The only thing Speed Counters really add is with the effects of Speed World 2 letting you like, draw another card during your turn, which is easily replaced by Jar of Greed or whatever you happen to need at that second. Speed Counters and Speed Spells mostly serve to just make the game more confusing, to be frank. And that’s not a good thing in a Turbo Duel: you already have to worry about driving your motorcycle, staying upright, not losing any of your cards, the cards in your hand, the cards on your field, the cards on your opponent’s field, and life points. That’s a lot of multitasking, which not everyone can do. Turbo Duels essentially don’t have Speed Counters or Speed Spells in Arc V anymore, if mostly thanks to the field spell Cross Over, and I don’t miss them. It gives duelists a lot less to worry about. They’re not horrible. I don’t hate them. I don’t mind them at all. But they don’t really add anything super great or useful so they’re not my favorite.

And then we have the anime-only summoning methods. Alright.

We’ve got Dark Tuners and Dark Synchro Monsters to start off with. This one isn’t actually that bad. The symbolism of the monsters devouring each other or whatever is kind of…weird, and I wanted to keep vore out of my card games, but alright. It has the symbolism, which isn’t subtle but still there. Dark Synchro Monsters, they’re the bad guys, yeah we get it. The speech of “when shadows devour shadows the curtain pulls back to reveal a world without light” or whatever it is, it gets really repetitive when used in every episode for an entire season, but I actually like that! It’s a lot like Arc V, actually - usually when a duelist is summoning their ace monster, there’s a small speech to go with it asking the monster for their help. Duel Links also has it to a much smaller degree. It’s a minor thing, but it’s a sweet gesture and I like it. It’s just a little bit over the top for me honestly. Monsters with negative levels, Dark Tuner Monsters, Dark Synchro Summons, Dark Synchro Monsters, we get it you’re evil. You start choking on the symbolism a bit. Dark Synchro Monsters don’t do anything Synchro Monsters can do. GX didn’t need to create Dark Fusion monsters to get the symbolism across that someone had turned evil. I’m not stupid and kids aren’t stupid. And these things weren’t even anyone’s ace monster. I like them other than that, but other than in name they’re just Synchro monsters my man. I like the Earthbound Immortals. 

No problems with them for me. Moving along.

Accel Synchros are the worst offender. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not very far into season 3 so they were only just introduced to me, but they’re probably my least favorite thing to happen in Yugioh ever. See, I liked the plot line of the Synchro Solution. Synchro monsters are great, but it’s good to have other strategies too, and I was really hoping for someone to bust out a strategy that didn’t involve Synchro monsters. Fusion monsters? Using special summons to bust out a level 7 or 8 monster in one turn? It’s all very much possible. I don’t know what I was hoping for, but I was really looking forward to seeing what the show came up with. Accel Synchro Monsters aren’t…really what I was looking for, what I wanted to see, or anything. There’s no reason to even really give them a name. Sure, they’re monsters summoned from Synchro Summoning Synchro Monsters, but we’ve already _seen_ that, why’re these different? Just call it a Synchro monster, slap the effects on it, and call it a day! I think I would’ve liked it better if that’s what they _had_ done, honestly. Yusei finds a Synchro Monster immune to card effects. Simple solution. Doesn’t even have to have over 2500 attack points, power it up with a trap or a spell, or hell, its own effect. Accel Synchros can be done during the opponents turn. This is absolute bullshit, honestly. This is the only summoning method that can be done normally like this. Pendulum Summoning, as overpowered as it is, can only be done in your turn. I’m not counting Special Summons from a Spell/Trap or ranking up your XYZ monster with a rank up Quick-Play Spell (or anything similar) because these are from Quick-Play Spells and Traps, which have always been around and are different from just summoning the monster. That’s very much bullshit. It’s like, go back to Duel Monsters, Yugi’s dueling Pegasus, and Pegasus decides he can Ritual Summon Relinquished during Yugi’s turn and it’s legal. It’s, stupid, and it’s a rule they never break and they never should break. Plus, the whole speeding up to use them, thing? Disgusting. There’s a reason Sonic never runs at top speed. Driving a motorcycle that fast is super dangerous and you shouldn’t be fucking doing that. It also breaks the idea that was introduced that your speed is determined by the number of Speed Counters you have; even before Accel Synchro Summoning, I think they might’ve just forgotten this. You can Accel Synchro Summon after you have, what, two Speed Counters? But by their already established rules you shouldn’t be able to do it unless you have 12 or whatever the max actually is, and then it’d be less broken and awful. It’s repetitive, unnecessary, breaks the rules, and it’s dangerous as shit. I do not like this.

Plus, I really want to stress that they **really aren’t necessary**. **Fusion monsters or Tribute monsters or hell, even Ritual monsters could have done the same thing the plot required without adding a new thing for everyone to learn.** You want to still have Synchros involved? Fine, fuse some Synchros or something. We don’t really need to add new rules and make everything complicated, especially for something that _really shouldn’t even be new_. You can agree or disagree with me if you want, I don’t care, but this is bullshit and Yugioh 5D’s ruined a perfectly good plotline with this, so fuck you Yugioh

Arc V had a similar thing, where instead of finding something beyond Synchro monsters or just as powerful or whatever, but with Pendulum monsters. But they solved this with the tools already available - overlaying Pendulum monsters, tuning Pendulum monsters, fusing Pendulum monsters, even do it more than once. Arc V handled this idea way better than 5D’s. I know everyone hates Arc V now and all and yeah I still like it, but Arc V very much handled this type of plot better than 5D’s and there’s no reason to hate Arc V anyway?

Fuck Accel Synchro Sumoning, basically, to sum up this all. This is the worst anime-only aspect of dueling I have ever seen and I doubt they’ll give me anything worse from here on.


End file.
